


You Had Me From Hello

by orphan_account



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bad Flirting, Barista Percy, Fluff, Fuckin' Fluffy Mondays, M/M, Mild Language, also clueless Nico, awkward gay babies, clueless Percy, implications of sex, percabeth was never a thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-12
Updated: 2014-05-12
Packaged: 2018-01-24 12:28:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1605185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy is a coffee shop barista and Nico is cute as fuck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Had Me From Hello

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: This work is entirely fictional, a work of fanfiction and is in no way a representation of Rick Riordan or anyone who represents him/his publisher/the future of the series/anything legal. Rick Riordan does not, as well as anyone else in any way a part of the creation of actual Heroes of Olympus works, recognise of this work as an official representation of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus series.

NEW MESSAGE FROM:ANNABETH

VIEW NOW? (OK)

_ Hey, Seaweed Brain, have you seen the new kid? Looks like he’ll be in your shop. He’s got the whole dark-poetry look. _

REPLY (OK)

_Piss off, Wise Girl. I’m working._

NEW MESSAGE FROM: ANNABETH

_Touchy, touchy. Alright, I’ll let you alone, But seriously, from the look of his clothes you’ll be getting some good tips._

      Percy groaned inwardly in annoyance as he slipped his mobile into his jeans pocket. The shop was empty and his boss on his lunch break down the street a bit, so he was-unfortunately-able to check his mobile. Ever since he had come out as a bisexual to Annabeth, she’d been hellbent on setting him up. He appreciated it yeah, but not when he was working.

     The bell rang to signify a customer’s approach and Percy looked up to see what he was sure were the darkest eyes in existence, “Hello.”

      “Uh-hi. May I help you?” Percy tried not to notice how his voice came out a fraction of an octave higher than normal. The boy didn’t know him, so he wouldn’t be able to tell.

      “Uh,” The boy in front of the counter looked like he’d just been a pile of cliches given life. He wore a black t-shirt, jeans and a leather jacket. Percy could see the macbook and Classic Lit. textbook through the open zipper of his bag, “May I have a medium hot black coffee, please?”

      “Only because you asked so nicely.” Percy tried not to wince at what could be taken as a flirtatious response, “Ah, one dollar.”

      The boy gave him a small smile, almost only a twitch of his lips-seriously, this was just unfair-and extracted a single crumpled paper from his pocket. His eyes wandered the shop as Percy fixed his drink.

     “So, is this the coffee college kids go to sip lattes and talk about psychology?”

     Percy laughed as he handed the boy his coffee, “Usually. I could give you a timesheet of when its empty like this, if you wanted.”

     The boy’s eyes met his and his hand lingered a moment more than necessary when exchanging dollar for cup. He took from his pocket a small composition notebook with a pen in the pages and wrote something hurriedly that Percy couldn’t see, tore the page out and handed it to Percy, “I’ve got to be off, but I’d like that if you wouldn’t be opposed.” His eyes flickered over Percy’s face, his expression softening.

     “Uh-yeah, sure. Any time good for you?” The boy smiled.

     “Any time. Thanks for the consideration.”

     “Hey, don’t thank me, regular customers on my shifts make me look like a better employee than I am. I’m doing this for entirely selfish reasons.”

     The boy laughed as he held his cup up in a ‘cheers’ sort of way. “Take care.” He called as he left, leaving Percy with a piece of paper with a number and a name Nico and a lingering smile. One Percy hoped he’d see again, as often as possible.

NEW TEXT MESSAGE TO: ANNABETH

_This boy you mentioned, he wouldn’t happen to have brown eyes and all-black clothes, would he? Like really, //really// dark brown eyes?_

SEND

NEW MESSAGE FROM: ANNABETH

_ The darkest I've ever seen. Why, have you seen him? _

     Percy hesitated before answering

REPLY (OK)

_You were right, he seems the cafe type. And he was quite interested...in me._

(SEND)

* * *

     “Come on Percy, its been a month! You see each other practically every day, you’re completely smitten-just shag each other already!”

     Percy’s face reddened as he hissed, “Keep your voice down! You want to get me fired?”

      “Your boss is hardly ever here! I may as well apply for the job and get paid for helping you, doing what he’s _supposed_ to be doing.”

      Percy shrugged and grabbed an application from under the counter and lay it at the middle, pen across, “Go ahead. Maybe then you’ll be able to make your own coffee.”

     “Ah, no. We need _something_ for you to do-besides moon over Nico di Angelo.”

     “Annabeth-”

     “Don’t you ‘Annabeth’ me Perseus Jackson. I swear, if you let that boy get away before you tell him how completely besotted you are, I _will_ kill you.”

      In the heat of her sentence, Annabeth had failed to see Percy’s waving, a social cue to stop speaking. The reason being the entering of the other half of their conversation.

    “I’m sorry-I can come back later, if you’d rather-”

     “No, its fine. I have to go find Chiron and give him this application, you can take my place giving Percy here company.” Annabeth grinned mischievously as she took pen and paper and brushed past both silent boys, waving as she left the shop with a soft ring of the door’s bell. Nico stood awkwardly for a moment before coming to sit at the bar before the low, waist-high counter.

     “Sorry for-for walking in on that. Your discussion sounded important, by how passionate Annabeth sounded.”

      Percy smiled and shook his head, ”Shut up, you heard what she said. We were just discussing me refusing to tell a boy about a stupid crush.”

     Nico smiled apologetically, “Yeah, I just thought you would want to-that seemed really personal and I didn’t want to pry.”

     “Thanks for the thought.” Percy said, wiping the counter in front of Nico, “Seriously though, its fine. Did you want something to drink?”

      “Uh-sure, thanks.”

     “Your regular coffee?”

     Nico laughed, “Oh, I didn’t know I had a regular.”

     “Medium hot black?”

      Nico nodded, smiling at Percy. He bit his lip slightly, looking as though he was trying to phrase something delicately.

      “Alright, out with it. You’ve obviously got something to say.”

      Nico’s eyes widened, “I just-I was just a bit surprised. By what-what you two were talking about. You just-you seem so confident, so put together. I didn’t think-”

     “Didn’t think I wasn’t capable of telling someone I liked them?” Percy’s eyebrows furrowed together as he put the coffee in front of Nico, “If either of us are too put together for pining over someone out of their league it’d definitely be you”

      “You’d be surprised.” Nico said lightly, taking a grateful sip of the coffee.

     “Oh come on, who’s too good for the classic lit major? You’re like a combination of every desirable university romance that just decided to become a person.”

      Nico blushed furiously, looking down at his hands, “Uh-thanks Percy. No one’s ever-no one’s ever said anything that nice to me before. Thank you. And, ah, there is-there is someone. You know them, in a way.”

      It felt as though he was talking through glass ( _Fuck, he likes someone else. Of course he does, what did you expect?_ ) “Don’t just leave me hanging! C’mon-who is it?”

    “Its-er, its-”

      “You don’t have to tell me if-”

     “Its you.”

    Percy froze, his arm bent at a ridiculous angle from wiping the counter. He held his breath as he looked up at Nico, who was still staring at his hands.

     “You-you like _me_?” Percy asked stupidly, sure he was going to wake up to Annabeth snapping her fingers under his nose, surely this couldn’t be real?!

     “I do.” Nico agreed quietly, changing a look at Percy. When he saw his frozen posture and wide eyes, he thought he’d disgusted the other boy, “I-I’m sorry. I should-I should go.” Nico nodded to himself before standing and turning his back. He was nearly to the door before Percy realised he was a person with a mouth and a body and a chance of stopping him.

      “Wait!” Percy swung his legs over the counter to get to Nico, not pausing when he knocked over his abandoned coffee cup. He grabbed Nico’s left hand as his right gripped the door handle. Nico whipped around at the touch, and because Percy had been walking towards him they were now nose-to-nose.

       Percy found it hard to breathe, but he managed to speak, “You are-you are the same. You-Annabeth-that’s what-” He hated himself for stuttering and tripping over his words like a teenager telling his first crush he liked them, though Nico seemed to take pity on him, and quieted him with his mouth.

     The kiss was soft and explorative at first, both taking a moment to learn what the other liked and where they should turn their heads to avoid bumping noses.

      When he became lightheaded from lack of air, Percy reluctantly pulled back from the kiss, leaning his forehead against Nico’s. Somewhere in their kiss, Percy had crowded Nico against the wall, and there Nico stood, leaning heavily against it as he panted and pressed small kisses and nips to Percy’s throat.

       Percy smiled and lifted the younger boy’s head by his chin so they were eye-to-eye. Nico’s lips were red from kissing, and Percy supposed his were as well, “I don’t think it would be wise to continue kissing like this. I have a thirty minute shift left.”

      “I have an empty dorm room.” Nico said, breathless, “I think we can last thirty minutes-at most.”

      “You could,” A voice came from the back room of the shop. _Shit, I forgot about the back door._ Annabeth walked through the door from the back room, holding up a paper-the application paper. “Chiron’s accepted my application, you crazy kids go have fun.”

    “Annabeth, you’re a saint.” Percy grinned at her, taking Nico’s hand in his, lancing their fingers together as the younger boy pulled him out the door to the promised dorm room.

 ****“Its about time!” Annabeth called after them, pulling out the mop to clean up Nico’s knocked over coffee. She smiled to herself, thinking; _Fucking idiots. I knew they only needed a push._


End file.
